Billion pound boost for East Midlands from international students

International students in the East Midlands generate a net impact £1.28 billion according to a new study out today (Thursday 11 January).

The Higher Education Policy Institute and Kaplan International Pathways are jointly publishing a major new piece of research, The costs and benefits of international students by parliamentary constituency, undertaken by London Economics.

Unlike earlier research, this study provides a detailed analysis of the costs as well as the benefits to the UK of welcoming 231,000 new international students each year.

At the University of Leicester, where more than 25% of the student population is international, President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Boyle said international students benefitted universities and the region in many ways.

Professor Boyle said: “Spending by international students is a key contributor to our regional economies. The headline statistic revealing a £1.28 billion benefit in the East Midlands alone goes some way towards demonstrating the magnitude and significance of the success of UK universities as global institutions.

“Students enrich our universities and regions far beyond the economic- they generate cultural capital and ensure that higher education in the UK benefits from a global outlook and global approach.

“Research has also shown that the ability of a country to attract international students or facilitate exchanges is a powerful tool in public diplomacy. Such ‘soft power’ has enormous influence around the world and foreign student exchanges have been shown to have positive indirect ‘ripple effects’ when returning students advocate on behalf of their host country of study.”